I have loved being the mother of boys. My sister had three girls, and I spent my high school and college years babysitting them and watching them grow. Boys are easier…just have to say.
After we had our second son, friends all over the Middle East encouraged us to go for a third, so we’d have a girl, but Raouf was already over 50 and, to be honest, I felt I lacked the energy for three boys. My standard reply was I liked being the only girl in my house. I knew a girl would have Raouf wrapped around her little finger.
There are two things in life I don’t think you can get training for — parenting and grief. Both deal with emotions that you never know you have, and everyone reacts to things in different ways.
As a parent, I loved watching my boys grow and develop into wonderful young men. They’ve both become independent and are able to figure things out with God’s help. We keep in touch, even as new friends come into their lives. Their friends like coming to our house, actually, so that’s a good thing.
Then something happened…my oldest got married last month. I’ve had three years to grow to love his sweet wife, and have nothing but joy over their union. They had a week’s honeymoon, and afterwards she joined him for two weeks of work travel. Then something happened…they came back and started settling in their new home.
I’m now a mother-in-law. Who tells you how you’re supposed to feel about that? It’s just the weirdest sensation in the world, I have to say. Not bad…just weird. My old home is their new home, and my new condo is mine, and never the twain shall meet. I went through this when I got married, but it sure looks different on this side of the river.
Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
He’s leaving and cleaving, and parents are grieving. It’s the way it should be, but I have to recognize that it is a grieving process. All change brings some grief, even good change. Yet, as Mr. Bennet says in Pride and Prejudice, “but don’t despair, it’ll pass; and no doubt more quickly than it should.”
So, as I welcome the other woman into my life, I do so with open heart and arms; accepting the challenges of change and looking forward to the joys of watching them learn to be family.
Are you experiencing a new sensation as change comes to your life? Take it to the Lord and let him teach you as the seasons continue to challenge and grow us.
Grace and Peace